South Gloucestershire Council backed a motion from Lib Dem councillors Sue Hope and Claire Young on Wednesday night, calling on the government to provide urgent extra funding to avert another winter crisis in the NHS later this year.

Proposer of the motion, Lib Dem Health Spokesperson Sue Hope said:

“The NHS is there for all of us when we need it, and we now need to return the favour. We are told by North Bristol NHS Trust that they expect extra winter pressures this year to cost them up to £6million, and yet, only £1.4million of extra funding has been made available by Government. NBT are doing their best to be prepared for the winter and are recruiting extra staff to cope, but they can only do so much with the money they have been given.

“If this funding black hole is not redressed, we will see a repeat of last year with cancelled operations and patients forced to wait in corridors. This would place terrible pressure on both staff and patients, and could lead to unnecessary deaths, as it did last year. The best 70th birthday present we could give to the NHS is to make sure that it is adequately funded this year, and every year.”

Seconder of the motion, Lib Dem Group Leader Claire Young said:

“We are pleased that our motion gained cross-party support and that the Council is now calling on the Government to urgently address the impending winter crisis in the NHS. However we were disappointed that the Conservatives felt the need to vote down our call to be honest with the British public that any increase in NHS funding will have to be met by tax increases.

“Leading health experts estimate that the NHS will need a bare minimum of an extra 4% in funding each year to cope with the growing needs of our aging population. Despite the illusorily promises of Boris Johnson during the Brexit campaign, the only way that the NHS will get the money it need is through an increase in taxation. It seems ludicrous that the Conservatives would not support being honest with the public about this.”

There was visible anger and cries of “shame” from the public gallery last night as Conservative councillors unanimously voted down a proposal to put controversial planning changes out to public consultation, so that local residents can have a say on them. Instead the Conservatives voted the changes through on the night against Lib Dem and Labour opposition.

Cllr Sue Hope (Cotswold Edge) said: “When he became Leader of the Council earlier this year, Cllr Savage claimed that there would be a new dawn of openness and transparency under his leadership. He has fallen very hard at the first hurdle. It is frankly astonishing that he and his councillors would seek to push through such sweeping changes to our planning system without giving residents a chance to comment and be listened to.”

Imploring Conservative councillors to think again, Cllr Tony Davis (Dodington) said: “All we are saying is ‘give the public a say.’ You were elected by local residents to represent their interests, not simply to blindly vote the way you are told by your leader. If you vote these changes through without consulting the public, your credibility with residents on planning issues will be out the window for good.”

Cllr Maggie Tyrrell (Thornbury South & Alveston) said: “Because the public have not been consulted, I’m not sure many people will realise they are about to lose important planning rights. Under these rule changes, members of the public will be banned from attending and speaking at site inspections, as they currently can. Regular planning meetings at Thornbury will be scrapped, meaning that the planning process will be made less accessible for residents in the west of South Gloucestershire. Residents will feel that the deck is being stacked against them even further. This really is a shabby and undemocratic move by the Conservatives.”

South Gloucestershire Lib Dems are set to oppose proposals by the ruling Conservative Group to place greater limits on local residents’ input into the planning process – including scrapping the right for residents to attend site inspections by the planning committee.

Lib Dem Group Leader, Cllr Claire Young said:

“My party have always believed that public decisions should be made in as open and transparent a way as possible, which is why we cannot support these proposals. Excluding residents from site inspections risks reducing public confidence in the fairness of the planning process.

“Coming on the heels of the Conservatives’ decision to push ahead with major developments at Coalpit Heath, Charfield, Buckover, Iron Acton and Thornbury in the face of public protest, this latest move will just add to the perception that the odds are being stacked against residents and in favour of powerful developers.”

Lib Dem Deputy Group Leader, Cllr Maggie Tyrrell said:

“While we welcome the fact that the administration have u-turned on some of their previous proposals, after outcry from local residents and opposition councillors, it’s clear that these changes still make the planning process less accessible for residents. Regular planning meetings in Thornbury are to be scrapped, meaning that it will be more difficult for residents from the west of South Gloucestershire to participate in the process, particularly those residents who rely on public transport.

“The Tories propose that developers could run public engagement sessions to make up for the loss of local council-run planning meetings. This just goes to show how enamoured the Tories are with rich developers, and how little they understand about real local democracy.

“The administration’s official line that these changes will ‘encourage engagement’ and make the system ‘more transparent’ suggests that they have either completely lost touch with reality or that they take local residents for fools.”

South Gloucestershire Liberal Democrats have welcomed an NHS initiative to review how urgent care services are delivered across our area and are lobbying for Yate Minor Injuries Unit to be upgraded to an Urgent Treatment Centre, with a greater range of services.

Lib Dem councillor for Yate Central, Sue Walker said: “The staff at the Yate Health Centre provide a good service with the resources they have available, but they are currently only equipped to deal with minor injuries. The local NHS’s review of urgent care presents an excellent opportunity to expand the range of services available at Yate, to give patients a full walk-in service for ailments as well as for minor injuries.”

Lib Dem Health Spokesperson, Cllr Sue Hope, said: “At Wednesday’s Health Scrutiny meeting I asked the CCG’s South Gloucestershire Director, David Jarrett, whether Yate Heath Centre was in line to be upgraded to an Urgent Treatment Centre. His response was that local health managers are currently considering locations but that no decisions have yet been made. We will continue to lobby for Yate to be upgraded.”

Lib Dem councillor for Yate Central, Ruth Davis, said: “It’s good that local health managers have acknowledged that the current way health services are provided can be confusing for residents. Staff at Yate MIU have recently improved information about which services are, and are not, provided there. But it would be far better to increase the range of services available, rather than having to turn people away. The Health Centre is a popular and accessible facility, so it would make sense to make fuller use of it by turning it into an Urgent Treatment Centre.”

South Gloucestershire’s Liberal Democrat councillors have warned of a repeat of last year’s winter crisis in the NHS if extra funding isn’t made available. The warning comes after North Bristol NHS Trust (NBT) announced that they have only received a fraction of the money they will need to fully meet anticipated winter pressures later this year.

Lib Dem Health Spokesperson Cllr Sue Hope said:“While winter may seem a long way away as we enjoy the July sunshine, our local NHS are already planning for the extra pressures they will face this winter. NBT have told us that they expect to have up to 300 extra beds worth of patients to treat this winter at a cost of £6 million. However the Conservative Government has given NBT just £1.4 million to deal with winter pressures. This simply isn’t good enough and both patients and staff will suffer as a result.”

South Glos Lib Dem Leader Cllr Claire Young said:“Without adequate funding to cope with winter pressures the NHS will be forced to cancel operations and move patients about, as they did last winter. While the Prime Minister has announced an increase in funding for the NHS from next year, that will come too late to help to those needing treatment this winter. In the first few weeks of 2018 there were over 10,000 more deaths than expected across England and Wales. We cannot allow that to happen again. The Lib Dems will be bringing a motion to July’s meeting of Council calling on the Government to urgently increase the NHS’s funding, so that our hardworking doctors and nurses can adequately cope with the pressures they will face this winter.”

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